PEBBLE BEACH and MONTEREY, California — Recession? What recession? At two separate auctions tied in to the Monterey/Pebble Beach classic-car extravaganza this weekend, buyers paid record prices for classic cars. The highlights were the sale of a 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante Coupe for $7.9 million and a 1961 Ferrari 250GT SWB Berlinetta for $4.5 million.

At the Gooding & Company auction at the 58th annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, the Bugatti sale set an all-time Pebble Beach auction record. Among the other notable sales was a 1914 Stutz Series E Bearcat, one of only six believed extant, which sold for $1.4 million. Altogether, the auction saw eight cars sell for more than $1 million at the Gooding company's first of two nights of auctions, held at the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center.

Meanwhile, the RM Auctions 'Sports & Classics of Monterey' event was the setting for the sale of the Ferrari 250GT SWB Berlinetta and of a 1961 Ferrari 400 Superamerica coupe, which sold for $1.6 million. In non-Ferrari activity, RM Auctions sold a 1948 Tucker sedan for a new world record price of $1.01 million and a Rolls-Royce Phantom II Special Town Car from 1933 at $2.3 million. The event, at the Portola Hotel & Spa in downtown Monterey, saw 11 cars sell for more than $1 million.